Panathinaikos lost a big chance to get a 2-0 lead in Euroleague play offs, but everybody in the team know that nothing is over till it’s over. The coaching staff and the players are convinced that the road leading to Berlin and the Final4 is still open.
“We know we have to fight”, Obradovic said. “We have to fight in both our games in Italy and to demonstrate the character we know we have as a team. It was a tough series anyway, it is something that we knew already and it remains tough now on 1-1. We wasted a big chance and we understand it. We have to deal with the situation as it is right now”.
Drew Nicholas agrees with everything his coach has to say. He talks about the “ideal situation” they dealt with on Thursday, before turning his head to the next game: “I think that we all know what went wrong. We have lived through it again. We had a big lead and we threw it away. It finally caught up on us. We paid the price. It’s not something that has to do with the practice. It’s forbidden to relax during the game. It’s a 40 minutes game and we have to play for 40 minutes. We must not sit around, or lose possessions. It sounds easy, I know. I also know that it’s difficult for most of people to understand it. And believe me we don’t really know what to say to the fans. We feel bad that we let such a big chance slip away through our hands. We fought all year for this and I feel that we let our fans down”.
Disappointment is not something that will get on Nicholas or his teammates. They know they still have job to do: “What will happen in Siena? There’s only one thing left: To fight. I believe also that despite the result, Thursday’s game showed us what we must and what we can do. We were exactly where we want to be, we were focused and we got a big lead. We lost our focus and the win slipped away. We already know what we must and what we must not do. We need better mentality. We talked about it in the locker room. What else could we ask? There were 15 minutes left on the clock, we were 16 points up and we had 18.000 fans on our side. You cannot ask for something more than that. We must not allow our lack of focus to cost us once again”.
The Italians spoke about the special motive they had. “Oh, our motive is here too! After a game like that, they have the right to say whatever they want. It makes sense. We showed our desire too, but for sure they demonstrated theirs as well. A lot of teams would have quit trying when the lead got up to 16 points, but they didn’t. Nevertheless our motive is there too. We want to go to Berlin. Not just get to Berlin. And Siena is on our way. Our motive is to get there; to be present!”
*Diamantidis had his treatment on his schedule, while the team will practice tomorrow afternoon. Panathinaikos will fly to Italy on Monday noon.
